


A Wizard's Session

by BlameMyMuses



Category: Homestuck, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Crossover, wizardry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-11 23:08:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3336185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlameMyMuses/pseuds/BlameMyMuses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alien visitors are an everyday occurrence at the Callahan residence. Compared to some of them, these two were even relatively normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Wizard's Session

Harry opened the door to the back yard and found what appeared to be two alien teenagers (though who could ever really be sure with aliens?) standing on his back step, apparently arguing with each other.

“Hello,” he said amiably, well used to such comings and goings. “Are you here for Nita or Dairine?”

They both jerked, startled, and took a step back. The shorter one had reached as though for a weapon before the taller had put a calming hand on their shoulder. They watched him warily, gold-and-gray eyes suspicious—no, cautious, he corrected himself. They looked a bit rough around the edges, but that was often the case with the various and sundry beings who often came in search of one daughter or the other.

“We…are in search of an advisory,” said the taller of the two. Their voice was light, melodic, a pleasant alto interspersed with an odd buzzing chirrup, not entirely unlike crickets. Harry was fairly certain that they were female—assuming their species even prescribed to such notions of gender.

But what was really startling, was that when she spoke she did not do so in the wizardly Speech, or even in her own native extraterrestrial language, but that she did so in barely accented English. He raised an eyebrow and stepped back, leaving the doorway clear.

“Why don’t you two come inside and wait for one of my girls to get home. I’ll fix up some breakfast. You hungry?”

They tried to hide it, but both aliens’ ears perked forward just a tad, and Harry smiled. Teenagers, the whole universe over.

He seated them at the kitchen table before pausing and looking them over. Claws, sharp teeth, horns, and forward facing eyes.

“Sorry, don’t know if this is rude by your culture or what, but are you two carnivorous?”

The tall one smiled. Not just sharp teeth but actual fangs glinted. “We are omnivores, though our species does require a significantly higher protein intake than your own. We’ve had human cuisine before with no ill effects.”

The short one—male, almost definitely—said something in a language full of clicks, rattles, and hisses, the sounds somehow wrapped around consonants, and with a few lonely vowels squeezed in for good measure. Harry couldn’t begin to parse the meaning, but the tone was annoyed and maybe just a touch sarcastic. She answered him in the same language, though with considerably less rattling to her words. He could actually hear the shape of the words when she spoke, in any case. Nita, blossoming linguist that she was, would love it.

“Problem?” asked Harry, keeping his tone mild.

“NO,” the short one said, the weird cicada-buzzing quality there even in English.

“My moirail,” (said with a trill and a croon like bumblebee wings, and probably a word that had no Earth equivalent) “was simply commenting on my homeworld dietary preferences, please don’t trouble yourself about it.” Harry nodded, and busied himself making breakfast.

***

Breakfast wound up being pancakes, with heaping sides of sausage and bacon for both aliens. The tall one had confirmed herself female, and introduced herself as Kanaya. Her grouchy friend was called Karkat, and was male.

“Though,” Kanaya had added, sprinkling powdered sugar over her flapjacks with enthusiasm. “Our species doesn’t really display the same sexual dimorphism as humans. It’s not really necessary, given our reproductive habits—”

“No, no, no! For all the pity you bear your offspring, don’t get her started!” said Karkat suddenly, and with feeling. “She’ll go on for hours, about shit no one but another jade would fucking care about.”

Harry was tickled to see that Kanaya blushed green beneath her gray skin.

“A pet hobby of yours?” he asked, kindly. God knew Nita and Dairine had their various topics of interest.

“Not exactly. A necessary skill set of my caste, back home. No, my hobbies are designing fashion, and I keep a modest garden. I meant to say before—your lawnring is lovely.”

Harry smiled widely, and would have been glad to talk gardens and Earth flora, but then the front door opened and Nita came into the kitchen, her manual tucked under one arm and looking half-asleep, despite having been up for several hours already, dealing with—something to do with a worldgating issue? Harry wasn’t sure, exactly.

“Morning, Dad. What’s—” She choked on her words (rare, in a wizard). “Dad! Away from the table, now!”

Harry started, and both his guests stiffened, their shoulders tense and eyes even more alert than the low level of wary discomfort they’d kept all through the morning. “Nita?” he asked, frowning.

“Dad, their planet is…not a nice place…”

Kanaya stood up, tall and thin and—it was hard to tell in the bright artificial light of the kitchen—faintly glowing?

“We’re on Errantry, and we greet you in the name of the Four,” she said formally. “You are the advisory?”

Nita paused, her manual half-hefted, pages cracked defensively.

“…you’re on Errantry?” she asked, disbelief coloring her voice. “But… Alternia doesn’t have wizards…”

“Wrong,” snapped Karkat. “Alternia has precisely twelve.”

**Author's Note:**

> Posted this on my tumblr the other day, figured I ought to put it here, too. This could very well turn into a longfic, if I let it, but right now I have only the sketchiest outline of a plot, so who knows what will happen with it. ^___^


End file.
